Sony introduces PlayStation 4 but won’t show us what it looks like

Sony has announced the new PlayStation 4, which includes several exciting new features, but without revealing what the product actually looks like.

The only part of the device revealed at the special event held in New York was the new DualShock 4 controller which has a more rounded appearance, a touchpad and a headphone jack.

Sony says the new PlayStation 4 will be available to US customers before the end of 2013 but there was no word on whether Australia would be in included in that first release wave.

But bizarrely, Sony stopped short of actually showing the PS4 console despite spending two hours talking about its specs, many new features and the healthy line-up of games that will support it when it is released.

Under the hood, the PlayStation 4 has an eight-core processor with 8GB of RAM and includes an optical drive that can play Blu-Ray disc and DVD.

The new features include 3D camera tracking which can track the small lightbar that will shine on the back of the DualShock 4 controller to give the console a way to sense depth in a 3D game.

But another strange announcement was the fact that the new PlayStation 4 console would be unable to play PS3 games natively but Sony said it was looking at technologies to make the device backwards compatible eventually.

It was suggested at the event that Sony will allow players to stream their old PS3 and even PS2 and PS One games from the cloud.

So if you have a pile of PlayStation 3 games at home it would be a good idea to hold on to your PS3 console if you wanted to keep playing the actual game discs.

The PS4 will be able to stream games to players thanks to a partnership with a company called Gaikai which specialises in cloud streaming technology.

Users will also be able to start playing the game while they are still be streamed and loaded.

Video sharing will also be a big part of the PlayStation 4 platform and they have even partnered with Facebook and UStream to allow players to share their gameplay videos to a wider audience.

Sony has added a sharing remote play feature for its portable gaming device the PS Vita to work with the PlayStation 4.

Sony says its goal is to make every PS4 game playable over wi-fi on a PS Vita on the same network.

A new PlayStation app for the iPhone, iPad and Android devices will also allow these devices to be turned into a second screen for the PlayStation 4.

Also revealed at the event was an all-new user interface for the PlayStation 4. Gone is the old cross media bar navigation system and in its place are larger images and boxes divided into various categories and social network sources.

With so much computing power to offer, the PlayStation 4 will give developers plenty of head room for game creation.

Speaking of games there was plenty of news with major developers showcasing their plans and actual game play of their PlayStation 4 release titles.

Killzone: Shadow Fall – a PlayStation exclusive franchise – was naturally one of the first games to be sshowed and it looked stunning in its detail and realism.

Other titles which were seen included DriveClub – a driving game that rewards drivers who play with others and that will also be playable across other platforms like smartphones and tablets.

Another exclusive PlayStation title – Infamous – will also have a game for the PS4. Infamous: Second Son will return players to the series where the main characters suddenly develops super powers which can be used for either good or evil.

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